The Migros Culture Percentage has been helping young Swiss chamber music ensembles to launch their careers since 1974. This year, the final was held in public for the second time. Three chamber music ensembles qualified for the final on March 7, 2013 in the Tonhalle Zurich through an audition on February 19, 2013: the Belenus Quartet (string quartet) from Zurich, the Daimones Piano Trio (piano trio) from Basel and the Trio Rafale (piano trio) from Zurich. The three ensembles each demonstrated their skills with a half-hour performance at the highest level. A high-caliber international jury selected Trio Rafale as the 2013 prize-winning ensemble, which also received the Audience Award.

The Trio Rafaleconsisting of Maki Wiederkehr (piano) and Flurin Cuonz (violoncello) - both Migros Culture Percentage Study Award winners in 2009 and 2010 - and Daniel Meller (violin), impressed the jury and the audience alike with their performance of Ravel's Trio in A minor. The Migros Culture Percentage Ensemble 2013 will receive prize money of CHF 10,000 as well as comprehensive support that will allow the ensemble to gain concert experience and achieve national renown. All three finalist ensembles will be included in the Migros Culture Percentage concert agency, which makes a financial contribution to the ensembles' commitment. In this way, concert organizers are able to offer high-quality concerts with Swiss musical talent at good conditions.

The jury for the final on March 7, 2013 consisted of:

• Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet, international concert activity as a soloist and chamber musician
• Ulrich Koella, Professor of Piano Chamber Music at the Zurich University of the Arts, international concert activity as a chamber musician and accompanist
• Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin, international concert activity as a soloist and chamber musician
• Patrick Peikert, director of Claves Records and the Concours Clara Haskil, founder of the concert agency Applausus
• Christian Poltéra, violoncello, international concert activity as a soloist and chamber musician

 

The Migros Culture Percentage has been supporting young Swiss artists since 1969 through national talent competitions and study and sponsorship awards. The study prizes enable young talents to finance their education in Switzerland and abroad. The study prizes are endowed with CHF 14,400 each. Exceptionally talented study prize winners receive sponsorship awards. These include long-term, individual support measures such as performance opportunities, coaching and promotion. The competitions take place annually in the following categories: Movement theater, singing, instrumental music, chamber music (biennial), acting and dance.

To date, around 2,800 promising talents have been supported with a total of CHF 37 million and accompanied on their path from education to a career with comprehensive support measures. On its online talent platform, Migros Culture Percentage presents outstanding talents with their biographies as well as visual and audio examples. Cultural event organizers, creative artists and artists' agencies can thus discover up-and-coming talent in a simple and uncomplicated way.

Talent competitions: www.migros-kulturprozent.ch/talentwettbewerbe
Online talent platform: www.migros-kulturprozent.ch/talente
 

"Thinking alone is criminal" is their motto, professional dilettantism is their artistic concept and feminism is a matter of honor: the women's band Les Reines Prochaines, known for their quirky, multimedia performances, has been working as a collective since 1987, although the members have changed time and again. Only Muda Mathis has been there since the beginning. The four legendary artists Muda Mathis, Michèle Fuchs, Sus Zwick and Fränzi Madörin have several good reasons for their Swiss tour: Their freshly christened album Blut (SMZ 2/2013, p. 22), their new live program Syrup of Life and a documentary film about their shifting gears (directed by Claudia Willke).

There is a wonderful song on your album called "Oh what would I like to do". What would you like to be doing at the moment?
Muda Mathis: Now I'd like to be by the sea in the sun, under palm trees.
Michèle Fuchs: I would be there too and then we would meet by chance and eat fish.
Sus Zwick: And in between we would also give a concert.
Fuchs: ... that would be our South Seas tour.

If I wanted to become a member of the Reines Prochaines - even more so because of this tempting South Sea tour: What would your application process look like?
Mathis: We certainly wouldn't do any casting, quite the opposite: you would have to bring in your specific talents, represent them vehemently and then gradually grow into our lives.
Fuchs: But you could also come with a specific idea, which should have drive and be both exotic and modest. Basically, we are very curious about what we don't have yet.

You are talking about typical criteria for an idea. Is there a commitment to the long history of Pure Prochaine?
Fuchs: There is actually no limit to topics and ideas, but there is a limit to our abilities. We have appropriated certain media within this framework. Because we develop so much together, we have learned a common language over time. I always look to Muda, because she is our great thinker.
Mathis: Very good!

Les Reines Prochaines was created in the turbulent spirit of the eighties. Was there an approach to art and music back then that you miss today?
Mathis: It's more that I see similarities between the 1980s and today. Collaboration is now a priority again, as is political action. The eighties were ideological, we raised hopes with the big ladle and tried out other ways of life. Only now that we are seeing signs of this again do I realize what I actually missed in the interim. But maybe it's simply down to the different phases of life. You're rebellious in your 20s and then you become domesticated in your 40s.

How does domesticity manifest itself in Les Reines Prochaines?
Mathis: It certainly manifests itself in a kind of continuity and professionalism. We don't keep changing the band name. We don't keep breaking up the product. We don't withdraw, we keep at it. The nineties were really shitty and boring. In the noughties, we were somehow registered as strange women and became part of the furniture. The baby bonus was then gone.
Zwick: ... and now we have the age bonus and everything is tip-top again.

Is ageing political?
Zwick: It's definitely a statement to stand on stage as you get older.
Mathis: The female body is almost unable to escape politicization. And then we are also dilettantes. And then we don't conform to beauty standards either. And so on ...
Fuchs: But in addition to external ageing, it is also an internal maturing process. Now that you can back things up with experience, you are invited to speak plainly. And the nice thing is that you are questioned much less.

The clear naming also runs through your new album "Blut" and I don't just mean the menopausal song about the last menstrual period. You are returning to political statements. What are you rebelling against?
Fuchs: Yes, the crude accusations are great fun! We have references to Pussy Riot and an anti-consumer song. It says: "Don't be a consumer and don't be a guest. Don't be a customer, be a wound in the big capitalist system". We sing that in concert, have a clear conscience and are happy about the CDs we sell (laughs). That's how it works.

Musically, you remain true to yourself and continue to let trash pop and cabaret, minimalist folk and polyglot tango collide. To what extent is Switzerland in your music?
Fuchs: Good question ... We are definitely influenced by Switzerland in some way, because we couldn't make Balkan music that easily. The instruments we choose are certainly Swiss. We don't want to deny our origins, but we don't have a close connection to traditional music either.
Mathis: I was in the village band as a child, but it wasn't the music that influenced me, but rather the experience of playing together.

What is your basis for the creation of a song?
Fuchs: Sometimes we take existing songs as inspiration. As we play and improvise, the song then develops in such a way that the original is no longer recognizable. That is our way of being creative.

Your programs are usually self-contained units. What is your relationship to earlier songs, do they have to end up in a drawer after a tour?
Zwick: When I listen to the songs from the past, I usually think they're great.
Fuchs: Actually, we always wanted a repertoire. But it's not that easy: firstly, sometimes we simply can't reproduce a song. It was all played so casually at the time of recording that you can never get it right again. And secondly, there were always other band members and we can't take over their part in the current formation.

There are many young women in your audience. Do you feel like a role model?
Fuchs: Well, we're more somewhere between identification figures and projection surfaces.
Mathis: The role model, if at all, is the spiritual project of the Reines Prochaines and not us as people with our concrete biography. When people get to know us, the image demystifies itself very quickly. But because we have a strong narrative element in our texts, the projection surface is very large. There are the most fantastic ideas that are interpreted into our texts.

For example?
Mathis: ... that the four of us sleep in one bed.

Concerts
April 27: Bern, Reitschule, Frauenraum
June 1: Zurich, Rote Fabrik, as part of the Okkupation festival

www.reinesprochaines.ch
 

Trained in contemporary stage dance and dance studies at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and at London City University, she later trained as a cultural manager with an Executive Master of Arts Management at the ZHAW.

In 2012, she completed a leadership diploma with a focus on systemic network management at the St. Gallen Management Institute SGM.

Eva Richterich is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Emil and Rosa Richterich Beck Foundation and the Swiss Dance Archives as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Ricola Holding AG. She has a daughter and lives in Zurich with her partner and daughter.

More info: www.kultur-vermittlung.ch

There are building projects that architects lick their fingers for. The design of a concert hall is certainly one of them. Despite tricky acoustic aspects, despite spatial constraints and despite some of the client's special wishes, the architect is able to spread his special ideas: see the equally expensive and fascinating Elbphilharmonie by Herzog & de Meuron, see Norman Foster's imposing Zénith de Saint-Étienne Métropole or the Berlin Philharmonie by Hans Scharoun, inaugurated in 1963.

Not only Foster's and Scharoun's buildings are included in the photo book Concert halls to see. In total, the editor Michel Maugé presents 104 largely well-known European houses. Photographer Manfred Hamm has taken some beautiful pictures, both interior and exterior views of the buildings from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The collection is based on a "primarily aesthetic perspective", write Michael Astroh and Manfred Hamm in the foreword. Ultimately, however, one could also speak of aestheticism taken to the extreme when looking at the deserted interior views of the large halls, which often seat up to 2,200 people. The images "sound" in your head even without musicians on stage. But the fact that architecture is ultimately made "for people" is lost from view in a presentation form that is too sterile and aseptic.

Michael Astroh, the author of the introductory text "Spaces of Music", also has to put up with the accusation of a presentation that is not very "grounded" and far removed from reality. He writes far too little about specific problems, be it acoustic issues or the particular architectural requirements of 20th and 21st century works. Instead, the philosopher Astroh oscillates between generalities and strangely redundant observations about something like metaphysical constellations. After such elaborate episodes as the following, one prefers to turn to the many color and black-and-white photographs: "In a technologically oriented culture, art and entertainment contrast quite obviously with each other. Their disparate objectives, on the one hand the shared internalization of autonomous expression, on the other the here and now intense experience of shared perception and movement, require different aesthetic strategies. However, the alternatives converge in the apotheosis of a communal subjectivity that relies on its cultural assets." (p. 23) Well, yes.

Concert halls, photographed by Manfred Hamm, edited by Michel Maugé, 192 p., € 98.00, m:con Edition, Mannheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-9814220-0-9

After half a century of only Willi Apel's The notation of polyphonic music (English 1942, German 1962) introduced the reading of original sheet music, two new textbooks on early music notation have now been published. However, although both are entitled "Notationskunde", they could not be more different; a comparison would be like comparing apples and pears. The book by Schmid, professor emeritus of musicology from Tübingen, is largely similar to Apel's, while Paulsmeier, who taught the subject for 30 years at the Basel Academy of Ancient Music, presents something completely independent.

Schmid's aim is to present the development of musical notation from the Middle Ages to the year 1900, with glimpses of ancient predecessors, neumes, tablatures, etc. A central concern for him is to "awaken an understanding of the functions of writing and its active role in the process of compositional history". The very clearly laid out chapters are regularly accompanied by tasks in which, for example, original notation shown in facsimile is to be translated into modern notation or knowledge questions are to be answered. This shows the book's origins in university teaching, where musicology students had to master this material in one (!) semester. The tasks set are announced as a "digital course", but these are simply outsourced text tasks in pdf format, although something completely different would have been possible here. It is also strange that the book uses an awkward transcription with pseudo-historical musical notation from the so-called Munich School, which will hopefully not spread thanks to Schmid's knowledge of notation.

Paulsmeier's publication is the first of a total of three volumes devoted solely to the notation of the 17th and 18th centuries - a period that Schmid covers in just a few pages, as there is little systematic to report here and the music is apparently easy to decipher, apart from the proportions that are important in practice. The other two volumes will then deal with the late 12th to 14th and the 15th and 16th centuries. Paulsmeier's starting point is also the original music, but she expressly wants to stay there: she refrains from translating it into modern notation, but instead uses numerous facsimiles as a guide to reading and independently reproducing the recorded music. The author also encourages the reader to sing or play the examples - after all, it is about music (at the same time, this refers to the origin of the teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis). The abundance of examples does not serve to exemplify a system, but rather shows the many pragmatic deviations from a background notation system, as they have always been practiced by composers and musicians.

As I said, apples or pears: if you want to gain an insight into the development of our musical notation with a manageable amount of effort, you should read Schmid's book. But if you want to gain a more detailed knowledge of music recorded in original notation, we recommend Paulsmeier's course.

Manfred Hermann Schmid, Notationskunde. Schrift und Komposition 900-1900, Kassel etc.: Bärenreiter 2012 (Bärenreiter Studienbücher Musik 18)

Karin Paulsmeier, Notationskunde 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Basel: Schwabe 2012 (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Scripta 2)

 

To mark the Liszt Year 2011, the Doblinger publishing house invited composers from a wide range of styles to write a statement about the composer in the form of a short piano piece. The result was a collection of ten compositions which could not be more different and which, of course, usually tell us more about the composers themselves than about Liszt ...

There is Johannes Berauer's poetic-pathetic but the birds still sing or Rainer Bischof's parodistic (or already sarcastic?) Dreamed out: A Liebestraum No. 3which mutates into a nightmare. Radical then the Late work by Bernd Richard Deutsch for prepared piano. Witty and grateful to play Tristan Schulzes For Franz, the Lisztianas well as the Fugato by Wolfram Wagner, which heats up the opening theme of Liszt's first piano concerto. Johanna Doderer, the only female composer in this group, writes a short dance of death that whets the appetite for more. Then, somewhat poorly Dédicace tardive by Peter Planyavsky. A soft-pop nocturne in the style of Richard Clayderman, which does not betray the level of this otherwise so original musician.

The highlight of the collection is probably A personal view on the 4th movement of Liszt's Dante Symphony by Mathias Rüegg. In just six pages, the composer whips us through a rollercoaster of emotions and styles with fire and wit. The master himself would probably have approved!

Liszt to: Hommage to Franz Liszt, pieces by Johannes Berauer, Rainer Bischof, Bern Richard Deutsch, Johanna Doderer, Peter Planyavsky, Mathias Rüegg, Helmut Schmidinger, Tristan Schulze, Erich Urbanner, Wolfram Wagner, D 01684, € 20.65, Doblinger, Vienna 2011

 

Eisler's political songs

Even before the tributes to Verdi and Wagner, the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel took the opportunity to publish a fine volume of 20 songs to mark the 50th anniversary of Hanns Eisler's death (September 6, 2012). Until now, it has not been so easy to get hold of such sheet music, whereas recordings, even historical first recordings with the singer Ernst Busch, have been available for some time. In addition to well-known songs that have been out of print for a long time (such as the eponymous Stempellied), the booklet contains improved editions (e.g. the Dome song from Brecht's The round heads and the pointed heads) and seven first editions.

With his political songs about unemployment, hunger and war, Eisler struck a chord in the 1920s and 1930s; he brilliantly translated the texts of Brecht, Tucholsky and others into inspiring music. No wonder he had to emigrate from Germany as a communist Jew. But it is also no wonder that he returned to (East) Germany soon after the end of the war, despite great success in the American film business.

Mark Brandenburg, you sandy one,
but havelwellenbrandige
potato-rich meadows!
You green-wooded woman
and always belonging to me
a nature that's a bit of a downer!

(Text by Robert Gilbert on Greetings to the Mark Brandenburgcomposed in exile and also included in this collection).

Songs and ballads is a thoroughly enjoyable edition. A detailed foreword in German and English by the editors Peter Deeg and Oliver Dahin provides information on the life and work of the composer, and the notes on each song are not limited to source references, but are themselves little stories about lyricists, the genesis of the songs, performers, performance venues etc., such as the delicious description of When the hedgehogs in the evening hour.

Hanns Eisler, Keenen Sechser in der Tasche, songs and ballads for voice and piano, edited by Oliver Dahin, Peter Deeg, DV 9073, € 20.00, Breitkopf und Härtel, Wiesbaden 2012

Bernstein's catchy tunes

The volume Bernstein Broadway Songs combines twelve titles by Leonard Bernstein from West Side Story, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Candide and Wonderful Town. The five songs from the West Side Story are arranged by Carol Klose, the others by Rachel Chapin, as easy piano arrangements. These provide a light bass on the left, the singing voice in the right hand system or light melodic additions in the interludes. Above everything are the harmonic designations in letters, not immediately decipherable for classically trained eyes.

This is a reprint of the 1957 edition, clearly legible with large sheet music. It is nice that these highly entertaining and voice-friendly compositions from Bernstein's pen - such as the catchy tunes America or Mary -can buy again. Unfortunately, apart from a list of titles, the edition provides no information, no preface and no details about the individual musicals, as can be found in the Schirmer and older Hal Leonard editions.

Leonard Bernstein, Broadway Songs, Easy Piano, edited by Carol Klose, BHL 24648, € 14.99, Boosey & Hawkes/Hal Leonard, New York 2011

No, it is not a "compendium", i.e. a brief outline, the fundamental work on guitar technique by the renowned German guitarist and guitar teacher Hubert Käppel - even if it is described as such in the subtitle. The technique of the modern concert guitar describes the current playing techniques in detail and comprehensively and provides corresponding practice material. Käppel refers to the standard works by Pujol and Carlevaro, among others, but until now there has been nothing comparable in the (original) German language.

The first part begins with some thoughts on systematic practicing, then the posture and movement sequences of the left and right hand are discussed in detail, with clear positions on individual questions and yet undogmatically. Even though not every guitarist may agree with every detail, the detailed instructions are very informative. The extensive second part deals with technique exercises. At the beginning, all possible arpeggios are laid out on over 40 pages. Ties are also given a lot of space, while flamenco techniques are dealt with in passing. The final third part deals with fingerings and a few other topics such as playing by heart and stage fright. It is somewhat surprising that tuning the guitar is covered here and not in the basics at the beginning. The practice plans, which are based on technique training times of three-quarters to three hours, show that the book is aimed at students and professionals, but that it is hardly suitable as a textbook for music schools (as it is also suggested in the foreword).

Despite the systematic approach, Käppel's decades of practical experience as a guitarist and teacher shine through time and again. The "principle of the four hand frames", in which all movements of the left hand are traced back to four basic positions, is interesting. When it comes to the fingering of the right hand, Käppel is not afraid to propagate the use of the same finger several times in succession. Despite the striving for completeness, there are also individual aspects that are not taken into account. For example, the possibility of using the thumb for artificial harmonics is missing, and the handling of background noise when changing positions on low strings is also not addressed. 250-page A4 book will probably be used more as a reference work than as a course. We will only be able to judge in a few years whether it will develop into a standard guitar work of the 21st century.

Hubert Käppel, Die Technik der modernen Konzertgitarre, Detailed compendium on the basics and playing techniques of the guitar in the 21st century with a comprehensive, progressively structured practice section, € 26.95, Art. No. 610425, AMA-Verlag, Brühl 2011

Two hands, twelve keys, the joy of playing and inspiration - this is what it takes to write miniatures, as the pianist and composer Thierry Huillet (*1965) does with Treize à la douzaine has done. These thirteen tales, actually counting rhymes, for piano (Comptines pour piano) are ideal for introducing lower intermediate pupils to newer music. The very short pieces with titles such as Plus loins, Pierrot, Arc-en-ciel or Larme are written in a very personal tonal language, and despite the sparse means, they are not lacking in poetry and tonal charm. "A la douzaine" refers to the 12 notes of the octave, which often all appear in one piece. This colorful music is conceived entirely from the piano and its clear structures help to overcome the fear of unfamiliar sounds and many accidentals. Played as a continuous cycle, it lasts five and a half minutes. More advanced players should also enjoy these pieces and I can definitely recommend them as short recital pieces.

Thierry Huillet, Treize à la douzaine, comptines piano, AL 30 595, ca. € 12.50, Alphonse Leduc, Paris 2011

Charles Ives: A Songbook; arranged for voices and chamber ensemble by Sebastian Gottschick. Jeannine Hirzel, mezzo-soprano; Omar Ebrahim, baritone; ensemble für neue musik zürich. Has nowART 183

Anna Kaenzig explains this influence by saying that her father grew up in the USA and that music influenced her as a child. She was particularly inspired by singers such as Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt; Joni Mitchell can also be heard in places. The jazz lessons can only be detected in her nuanced vocals, which are reminiscent of the dreamy phrasing of Norah Jones. The songs, most of which were written by Anna Kaenzig herself, live essentially from this captivating voice. She sings her lyrics in a captivatingly effortless manner, which, in keeping with the basic musical mood, are mostly floatingly melancholy and deal with wanderlust, but also homesickness. Anna Kaenzig and her five accompanying musicians demonstrate excellent craftsmanship in the realization of the delicate songs.

Anna Kaenzig: Slideshow Seasons. Distribution: annakaenzig.com

Anna Kaenzig's second album is beautifully crafted down to the last detail - and may therefore seem a little staid. At least in comparison to the debut album by JJ & Palin, the project by Sarah Vieth and Hans-Jakob Mühlethaler. The two draw on Meanwhile In Kolin They draw on all kinds of retro elements from folk to blues and gospel. However, they don't do this in a nostalgic way, but in a highly individual way and sometimes with a wink. Using all kinds of instruments, they create a raspy and always surprising soundscape that always leaves plenty of room for Sarah Vieth's vocals. And rightly so, because the 25-year-old fascinates with a huge range of expression.

JJ & Palin: Meanwhile In Kolin. Distribution: irascible.ch

Historically informed performance practice has arrived in concert life. Almost every festival, almost every concert promoter today integrates early music ensembles into their programs. However, improvisation is still extremely rare. Although it has been practiced as a matter of course for centuries, the free play with stylistic copies seems strange today. This year's Improvisation Study Days at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis were dedicated to this topic under the ambiguous overall theme of Concerto.

Improvisation - and above all the teaching of improvisation - has long been an important topic at the Schola, said Pedro Memelsdorff, the director since January of this year, in his welcoming address. He even attested to the Schola's global leadership in this area. He also referred to the many points of contact with other sciences that a study of the concept of improvisation offers: Writing and memory, text and subtext, fixed and fixable events, listeners' perception of past times.

Schola lecturer Sven Schwannberger focused on this year's main theme of concerto. As all of today's uses of the term - instrumental concerto, ritualized (live) performance, title of a painting - were not common in the 16th and 17th centuries, he searched the historical context and found a variety of meanings for the word: Etienne Mouliniés (1599-1676) Concert des différents oiseaux described the supernatural and the affective, comforting effect of the singing as a "concerto", Michael Praetorius understood the "con-certare" as a skirmish between two opponents, as a "con-centus", and the term is ultimately found on numerous title pages as joint singing. Works in which several instrumental and vocal parts perform were often referred to as "concerto"; from 1761 onwards, the term was also used to describe an entire orchestra.

A look into the workshop ...
As is so often the case, and this is what makes the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis' academic events so vivid, the etymological explanations were followed by a look into the workshop. Schwannberger showed how such findings can be used in the classroom. He improvised with his students, a singer and two violinists, ad hoc on stage: musically in the style of Frescobaldi, in the form of a Monteverdi concerto - and with a wonderfully fresh sound.

Markus Schwenkreis (on concertante building blocks in Italian partimenti), Rudolf Lutz (on ritornello and episode in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concertos) and Dirk Börner, among others, also held such a workshop, in which musical performance and academic lecture are artfully combined. The latter attempted to read Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangements of Vivaldian concerti as instructions for improvisation. His analysis revealed the building blocks of the composition and his playing reassembled them into new music through improvisation - an impressive display of practical musical research.

... to the musical competition …
Finally, Arthur Godel dedicated his lecture, with musical support from Rudolf Lutz, to concertizing in the Latin sense of the word, musical competition. Godel recalled prominent disputes in music history - such as the Buffonist controversy in France, the dispute between Wagner and Brahms - and asked about the place of musical disputes today. In composition today, he said, we have arrived at "anything goes"; musical competition has shifted to the level of performers and the star cult.

... and into the future
However, the final round table with all the speakers identified another area of contention: the competition between improvisation and the established structures of music education. Here, the performer and the work he or she interprets are still in the foreground, improvisation and stylistic copying are seen as secondary. But how can these structures, which represent an anachronism in early music, be broken up? The unanimous opinion is that there is a need for major subject teachers who have themselves experienced in their training how stimulating improvisation lessons are for their own playing. And: improvisation must also be offered in general music schools. Because only those who experience it as a natural way of making music from an early age can venture into this difficult terrain without blinkers.
 

Otto Nicolais The Merry Wives of Windsor is actually a grand opera for around ten soloists, chorus and ballet. Here it is reduced and shortened. The piano is used instead of the orchestra. What remains are the three roles central to the intrigue: Mrs. Fluth, Mrs. Reich and Sir John Falstaff. Three students of Barbara Locher at the Lucerne School of Music have tailored this piece to their needs and are putting their singing and acting skills to the test.

Even in its extremely condensed form, the story of the fat and impoverished Sir John Falstaff, who dares to write the same love letter to two shrewd married ladies, has many comedic possibilities.

Cast: Rebekka Bräm, soprano; Eva Herger, alto; Alexandre Beuchat, bass; Stefka Rancheva, piano; Andrew Dunscombe, director

The performances will take place on April 25, 2013 at the BLVD Zurich, on April 27 at the Kächschür Oberdorf, Solothurn, and on May 4 at the Aula Reussbühl, Lucerne.

 

The traveling exhibition grow - anchor - shinen accompanies the Aargau Symphony Orchestra throughout its entire anniversary season. Five triangular towers illuminate the history of the orchestra and thus also the musical life of the Canton of Aargau.

Sibylle Ehrismann and Verena Naegele, the curators of the traveling exhibition, have compiled many surprising anecdotes and interesting details about the history of the orchestra. For example, the star violinist Nigel Kennedy played with the Aargau Symphony Orchestra as a young talent.
In addition to an overview of the various periods and their respective chief conductors, the exhibition shows the development of the ensemble from a music teachers' orchestra to a nationally important orchestra and cultural "beacon" of the Canton of Aargau.

The exhibition has been on tour since September last year and can now be seen from April 4 to April 26 in the counter hall of the Aargauische Kantonalbank at its headquarters in Aarau.

www.aso-ag.ch
 

The musical is based on the world bestseller "Alice in Wonderland" and the biography of the author Lewis Carroll, whose story describes a journey into surreal worlds that is still fascinating today. Often misunderstood as children's characters, the figures in the novel - the White Rabbit, the Chess Queen and Humpty Dumpty - are disturbing inhabitants of an absurd dreamland through which the protagonist wanders in search of meaning in nonsense.

The composer himself calls this trip "An odyssey in dream and nonsense", for which he invented a Waits-typical mixture of melancholy jazz ballads and rough rhythms. The Swiss premiere is on March 28 at 7.30 pm at Theater Luzern.

Further performances: 5.4., 14.4., 18.4., 20.4., 22.4., 26.4., 19.5., 6.6. and 16.6.2013